I am an evil giraffe. Who no longer blogs about politics.

This Survivor Class will be bringing their special brand of anxiety and demands into the workplace. One might joke that those likely outraged by things reasonable people would find mundane are also those most likely to major in Women’s Studies, but one cannot assume.

[snip]

Are employers going to start using precious resources to create safe spaces for people who are so unable to handle their anxiety they force the rest of the world to handle it for them?

Because if we’re being completely honest about it, the jobs reports have been good news – well, better news than usual – for the administration. I’m not in this gig to make life easier for the administration, you grok? – Mind you, they totally deserve the heartburn… but if I’m not going to note the spate of good reports once they started showing up, then I should let the odd bad report slide, right? That’s what some of the folks on the Left would argue, and to be fair, I can see that argument.

…I feel bad for the people who are contractually obligated to make a silk purse out of this nonsense, you know? I know I shouldn’t, because they wouldn’t feel bad for me; but I still have professional pride, and part of that is recognizing, and feeling empathy for, when other people have to take a hit to theirs. This is awful stuff to have to spin to anybody except a hardcore progressive, and possibly even some of them are wincing at this one.

The 2016 Democratic primaries are going to be fascinating. The idea is to run away from an unpopular President, guys. Towards the center.

The U.S. Payroll to Population employment rate (P2P), as measured by Gallup, was 44.5% for the month of April, up from 43.4% in March. This is the highest P2P rate so far in 2013, but is still more than a percentage point lower than the 45.7% seen last October, the highest P2P rate Gallup has measured since it began tracking employment in 2010.

Via Hot Air, who also is finding some other indications (jobless claims down, trade deficit down) that suggests that we’re hopefully going to have a good jobs report tomorrow. Well, good by current definitions. Still. Every little bit helps, right?

[pause]

Come on, I’m trying not to be completely gloomy right now. The sun’s out, and everything…

It was just supposed to be a post about how Minnesota Democratic businessmen shouldn’t be surprised that helping to elect Democrats who campaigned on a platform of raising taxes would then turn around and… raise taxes. Really, that’s all it was supposed to be.

And then this happened.

Some governors try to diss
‘Cause here’s Perry and his list;
They had firms but they chose to screw ’em
Texas pulls up quick to go woo ’em.
C-E-Os, if your firms are sound,
And you want to see that tax go down?
Dial 1-800-TEXAS-01 and kick them nasty thoughts.
Never look back.

Well, don’t feel bad; neither does anybody else. It’s uncertain whether said Council will be reauthorized when its charter runs out… what? No, not largely because it almost never meets and doesn’t really do anything when it does meet except make some executive order suggestions that had precisely zero effect on the unemployment rate. No, the Council is probably most at risk because Barack Obama doesn’t actually really think that job creation should be a priority anyway:

Among the council’s recommendations were to reduce government regulations. But in his second term, Obama is expected to pursue a slew of mandates via regulations, most notably on climate change.

The council’s winding-down could be seen as emblematic of a shift in emphasis by the administration. While Obama fought his reelection campaign primarily on “kitchen table” issues and a promise to strengthen the middle class, he has turned increasingly toward traditional progressive goals such as gun control, environmental protection and immigration reform in recent weeks.

There’s something vaguely comic about everyone trying to brag about how stressful their job is. Personally, I blame television. Shows like ER, The West Wing, and Scandal have glamorized the notion that killer jobs are friggin’ awesome and super-sexy. You know what’s really awesome? Doing your job so well that you can relax on a regular basis.

I had a job like that, once. I had it down to the point where I could do a day’s worth of stuff in about three hours, then spend the rest of it on the Internet until somebody needed me for something. And I felt precisely no guilt for it: my definition of “day’s worth of stuff” was carefully-calibrated to be better than the company’s by two standard deviations. And when the job got stressful, I did what you’re supposed to do in those cases and figured out how to make it less stressful. Admittedly, unique circumstances, but then they always are.

Jeremy was that poor kid in the debate last night who was terrified to be on national television asking the current President (and the next one) a question. I’m not going to hate on him; it’s tough to speak in public if you don’t have the right skill- and mindset. Besides, if the above is true I’d have to say that his instincts are pretty sound.